Friday 20 May 2011 20.47 EDT
First published on Friday 20 May 2011 20.47 EDT

William Fotheringham

Lance Armstrong faced fresh allegations of doping last night when CBS News reported that one of the seven-times Tour de France winner's closest former team-mates, George Hincapie, had told a federal inquiry into drug-taking at the US Postal Service squad that he and Armstrong provided each other with the banned blood booster erythropoietin.

A release from CBS stated that the station's leading investigative programme "60 Minutes" had learned that "Hincapie testified that he and Armstrong supplied each other with the endurance-boosting substance EPO and discussed having used another banned substance, testosterone, to prepare for races". Armstrong has consistently denied the use of banned drugs and has never failed a drug test. Hincapie has also never failed a drug test.

"60 Minutes", which has been going since 1968 and is regarded as one of the US's leading investigative programmes, is to broadcast an investigation into Armstrong and the use of drugs in cycling on Sunday evening. The programme is set to include interviews with two other former team-mates of Armstrong, Frankie Andreu and Tyler Hamilton. Hincapie will not be interviewed, his reason being the ongoing federal inquiry.

The release from CBS regarding Hincapie came 24 hours after an interview in which Hamilton admitted using drugs and alleged that he saw Armstrong use erythropoietin, the first time such an allegation has been made.

A third former team-mate, Floyd Landis, a self-confessed doper, claimed last year that Armstrong used banned drugs, with a series of detailed allegations which sparked the federal inquiry. Hamilton said in an open letter on Friday he had been questioned for six hours under subpoena by the grand jury in the federal investigation and that it had come as a relief to him to confess.

Armstrong's spokesman Mark Fabiani dismissed Hamilton's allegations. "Hamilton is actively seeking to make money by writing a book, and now he has completely changed the story he has always told before so that he could get himself on '60 Minutes' and increase his chances with publishers. But greed and a hunger for publicity cannot change the facts: Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports: he has passed nearly 500 tests over 20 years of competition." Regarding the Hincapie allegations, Fabiani said: "We have no way of knowing what happened in the grand jury and so can't comment on these anonymously sourced reports."

A letter addressed to CBS was released last night on the website Facts4Lance – launched by Armstrong this week – stating "60 Minutes has decided that these sensational charges are simply too good not to be true, and that it would prefer not to give Mr Armstrong a fair opportunity to confront his accusers. That decision may make for great television but it is disgraceful journalism."

Hincapie said from the Tour of California in Solvang that said he did not want to talk about the "60 Minutes" report. "It's just unfortunate that that's all people want to talk about now," he said. "I'm not going to partake in any cycling-bashing. I have done everything to be the best I can be ... I want the focus on the future of the sport, what it's done to clean itself up. I believe in cycling and want to support it."

Hincapie later released a statement through his attorney: "I can confirm to you that I never spoke with "60 Minutes". I have no idea where they got their information. As I've said in the past, I continue to be disappointed that people are talking about the past in cycling instead of the future. As for the substance of anything in the "60 Minutes" story, I cannot comment on anything relating to the ongoing investigation."

Landis and Hamilton made their allegations against Armstrong after several years denying that they had doped, in spite of the fact that they had both been banned for using forbidden methods of performance-enhancement, Landis for testosterone use and Hamilton for blood doping.

Hincapie is regarded as probably the cyclist within the professional peloton who is, or was, closest to Armstrong. Their association goes back to 1994, when Hincapie joined Armstrong's Motorola team, and continued at the US Postal Service and Discovery Channel teams until Armstrong first retired in 2005. They were room-mates and Hincapie was the only team-mate to assist Armstrong in all his Tour victories. Armstrong has described Hincapie as "like a brother".

Yesterday, Hamilton returned the Olympic gold medal he won in 2004 in Athens for the time-trial. He had tested positive for blood doping at the event, but was allowed to retain the title after the control sample to confirm the positive finding was damaged. The title is now set to go to the Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov.